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1Baltimore Office of Sustainability | 2015

Flower Farming in Baltimore Considering the Concept A report commissioned by the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, January 2016

2 Flower Farming In Baltimore: Considering the Concept

Baltimore is a leader and innovator in urban agriculture. As such, flower farming in Baltimore holds promise, and there are signs that a cut flower market is growing. There’s a readily available market niche with the “buy local” and “farm to centerpiece” movements, awareness about where flowers are grown, and preferred consumer aesthetics. Because diversity is key to help manage risks on an urban farm, or any farm, flower growing could be added to existing farms in Baltimore City to capitalize on these trends.

The development of an urban flower farming industry will fulfill multiple priorities – greening vacant lots, providing business and employment opportunities, furthering the buy local movement and supporting the local economy. With the guidance and support of the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, the recommendations in this report can improve the viability of flower farming in the city and expand what urban agriculture means in Baltimore.

In Partnership

Contributors: Kristin Dawson, Sarah Buzogany, Andy Cook, Jenny Guillaume, & Beth Strommen. For more information, please contact the Office of Sustainability at [email protected] or 410-396-7526


Flower farming, for the purposes of this inquiry, is defined as production-based horticulture, or floriculture. Horticulture is defined as that branch of agriculture concerned with grow-ing plants that are used by people for food, for medicinal purposes, and for aesthetic gratifica-tion. This report considers floriculture for two main categories, cut flowers and value-added products. Cut flowers are used to make bou-quets. Value-added products include botanicals for medicine, body care products, and perfume. Farmer is used to describe an individual engaged in production growing of food or flowers for sales revenue. This inquiry focused on flower farming for generating sales and income.

The aim of this report is to consider flower farming on City-owned, vacant lots in a practical way, and to provide recommendations for poli-cymakers to more robustly include flower farm-ing for production. The main questions guiding this inquiry were as follows:

What is the current state of the floral indus-try, and is there demand for locally grown flowers?

When is flower farming in Baltimore City successful? What are opportunities to in-crease success? What are challenges specific to flower farming in the city?

What are some short and long term issues for flower farming on public land?

To answer these questions, the Office of Sus-tainability began initial research by convening a work group to explore flower farming. This work group consisted of City staff members

from related departments (e.g. Housing and Community Development, Planning), farmers, and entrepreneurs interested in sourcing local flowers and plants, and experts in the field of urban agriculture and sustainability from non-city government agencies and local non-profits. This group provided direction and advice on process and developing the recommendations.

The findings summarized in this report were largely developed through a series of over 50 individual interviews conducted with representa-tives from the following stakeholder groups:

Local and national experts in urban farming, flower farming, and the buy local flowers move-ment; Urban and non-urban farmers in Baltimore, the region, and across the country, who are growing food and flowers for production; Potential buyers of local flowers such as flo-ral wholesalers, floral designers/florists, restau-rants, grocers, and specialty shops; Professionals working for organizations that train urban and non-urban farmers.

In addition to interviews, the findings were also informed by research into floriculture industry trends, articles from professional farming, flori-culture and botanical organizations, research in-stitutions, and government or quasi-government agencies.

Process and Methods


Baltimore City has established a uniquely sup-portive environment for farming in the city. The Office of Sustainability’s Homegrown Baltimore program and Food Policy Initiative have set the stage for a favorable regulatory environment for urban farms through the Urban Agriculture Policy Plan and other practices. Mayor Stepha-nie Rawlings-Blake’s Vacants to Value program, where vacant building demolition and lots are viewed as opportunities instead of liabilities, con-nects farmers to available land with low-cost leas-es. The Baltimore Department of Recreation and Parks developed a thriving City Farm program connecting hobby farmers to plots in the city. Community organizations including the Parks & People Foundation, the Farm Alliance of Balti-more and Future Harvest Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, support farmers with skill development and resource sharing. These programs and other assets set Baltimore apart among cities in the United States as a leader in the contemporary urban agriculture movement.

With the launch of the Mayor’s Growing Green Initiative in 2014, a project began to explore the viability of flower farming in the city as a way to return more vacant lots into productive use and identify short and long term issues. The Office of Sustainability pulled together a stakeholder work group to offer advice and direction on the project. The report that follows was developed through a series of interviews with farmers, in-dustry experts and potential buyers, and online and literature research.

Executive Summary

Photo: Andy Cook


Key Findings: 1. Flowers are currently overlooked as an urban agriculture product.2. The floriculture industry is changing to a more localized industry. 3. Urban flower farmers have the same needs as other urban farmers.4. Cut flowers are more lucrative than other value-added products.5. Demand for locally grown flowers is gaining traction.


The contemporary urban agriculture movement was born out of the food justice and healthy food access movements, and emphasizes food, primarily vegetable, production. Growing flow-ers as a marketable product for sales has not advanced in the way food production has in cities. Many definitions of urban agriculture do not acknowledge flowers as part of the urban agriculture landscape; most specify the purpose of urban agriculture as feeding residents. There are fewer than fifteen known urban flower farms for production across the country varying great-ly in scale and business model. This presents an opportunity to increase urban floriculture as a revenue-generating business.

Definitions of urban agriculture or urban farm-ing corroborate this finding. For example, a re-port by The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future highlighting urban agriculture practices from sixteen cities states that, “Most broadly,

urban agriculture refers to growing and rais-ing food crops and animals in an urban setting for the purpose of feeding local populations.” Definitions of urban agriculture, including those by government agencies or non-profit and inter-est groups, either expressly state the purpose as food production, or are simply silent on flowers. Baltimore’s Office of Sustainability lists horti-culture in its current definition of urban agricul-ture: “The cultivation, processing, and marketing of food within the City, which may or may not include the use of intensive production meth-ods, structures for extended growing seasons, and on-site sale of produce. It may also involve animal husbandry, aquaculture, agro-forestry, vineyards and wineries, and horticulture.” Even the most highly regarded and frequently used reference sources in urban growing or flower growing don’t address small scale, urban flower production.

1. Flowers are currently overlooked as an urban agriculture product.

Photo: Justin Tsucalas : Plaid Photo


Although eighty percent of the cut flowers sold in the U.S. today are imported, attitudes are beginning to shift in the floriculture industry, and books, such as Flower Confidential, are prompting consumers to consider where their flowers are grown. The Slow Flowers movement has given a name to the increasing interest of consumers to buy local flowers. Even Wash-ington, D.C. is taking note, as the White House used only American-grown flowers for a French diplomatic state dinner last year, and Congress established a cut flower caucus. Increased aware-ness around buying local flowers dovetails nicely with the buy local movement for food and other items. Additionally, consumers are seeking an aesthetic that mass produced flowers from the

global market can’t meet – a sylvan-like bouquet with fewer blooms, and using more vines, ten-drils, evergreens, ornamental kale, moss-covered branches and snow berries. These products are often what small-scale, local flower farmers grow. The convergence of these three things: buying local, awareness of where flowers come from, and the preferred aesthetic of consumers support the possibility of growth in the local flower industry in Baltimore and elsewhere in the United States.

2. Floriculture is changing to a more localized industry.

Photo: Andy Cook


Flower production requires similar inputs and similar degrees of effort to urban food produc-tion. More than 30 flower farmers were inter-viewed for this report and noted the same needs for success as urban food farmers:

Land tenure Start-up funds/access to capital Water access Healthy soil Training/skill development Access to sales outlets Community support

All farming is a long term investment. Con-sistently, farmers interviewed for this project identified land security as the main issue for a successful flower farming business. One Bal-timore urban agriculture expert noted, “Land tenure is a game-changer.” Start-up costs for a new farmer can be daunting, exceeding $6,500 for the first year, even with a low-cost land lease on a city-owned lot. Water access can be chal-lenging for urban flower farmers if a live water meter is not on the site, and installing a water hook up can be cost prohibitive.

Although users do not typically consume cut flowers or value-added flower products, healthy soil is needed due to potential lead exposure as farmers can track soil into their homes through clothing, shoes or tools. Healthy soil also af-fects plant quality. Knowing soil conditions and the prior use of a city-owned vacant lot, such as whether there was a building on the site, can save time on the front end for a farmer to miti-gate conditions.

The Baltimore-area has many resources for farmer training. Though these quality training programs are well-respected, there is a gap in training for urban flower production specifically.Producing in cities can be of interest to farm-ers because of direct access to sales outlets and social networks. Just like food producers, iden-tifying sales outlets and managing relationships with potential buyers can be challenging with the demands of growing. An urban farm cre-ates a unique presence in a neighborhood, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that urban farms are more likely to thrive if they have community support, and that farms with community support were less likely to be vandalized or sabotaged.

3. Urban flower farmers have the same needs as other urban farmers.

Maya Kosok harvests flowers at her farm site in East Baltimore.Photo: Andy Cook


Value-added products, such as essential oils, from flowers and herbs proved less promising and less lucrative than cut flowers for farm-ing on a small scale. For example, it requires 12 pounds of lavender to create one ounce of es-sential oil and this quantity of fresh lavender can earn a higher price than the oil it would produce.

Urban flower farmers interviewed for this project reported that flowers are often more lucrative to sell than vegetables. Because they are viewed as a luxury item, cut flowers have a mark-up of 30-40% on average, compared to the mark-up for locally produced vegetables of 15-25%. Because no average gross sales revenue per acre could be determined for cut flowers in Baltimore, a 0.5 acre vacant lot was used as a model to demonstrate potential revenues as illustrated in the table below. A sales range per stem was employed, resulting in projected sales revenues of $33,600 to $57,600 for the growing season.

4. Cut flowers are more lucrative than other value added products.

FlowerStems per

PlantTotal Stems in 1

Planting BedTotal Stems in 10

Planting BedsMinimum

Price per Stem

Minimum Gross Revenue per 12

Weeks

Maximum Price per Stem

Maximum Gross Revenue per 12

WeeksCelosia 3 2,400 24,000 $0.40 $9,600.00 $0.65 $15,600.00Gomphrena 5 2,000 20,000 $0.10 $2,000.00 $0.35 $7,000.00Sunflower (branching) 3 1,200 12,000 $0.50 $6,000.00 $0.75 $9,000.00Zinnia 5 4,000 40,000 $0.40 $16,000.00 $0.65 $26,000.00

Projected Revenue $33,600.00 $57,600.00

Photo: Andy Cook


Based on interviews with grocers, restauran-teurs, wholesalers, and florists, all were favorable to the idea of purchasing locally grown flowers. Most interviewees did note that their organiza-tion values buying local, as do their customers. Flower wholesalers can generally procure the products they seek at any time of year on the international market, but prefer the freshness and longevity of locally grown flowers. Further-more, flowers produced in the region follow current aesthetic trends more closely than im-ported flowers, and present uniqueness that sets them apart from what is typically available.

However, potential buyers were concerned about year-round supply, ease of purchase, qual-ity and price. Imported flowers are grown with cheaper labor, and are comparatively inexpen-sive. Currently, most businesses source less than 5% of their flowers locally, except Local Color Flowers, which reported sourcing 5% from within Baltimore City and the rest from within 100 miles. While there are challenges to meet-ing accepted price points, the values-driven local movement creates significant potential to ex-pand the supply of local flowers to local buyers.

5. Demand for locally grown flowers is gaining traction.

Photo: Alexander Dobson

Walker Marsh, who is starting Tha Flower Factory on City-owned vacant land in East Baltimore.


The five key findings of this report informed the recommendations. These recommendations do not supplant those made in the Urban Agriculture Plan, but instead are practical ways to make flower farming viable in the city and aim to answer the question: How can city government and community organizations support urban flower farmers? As a result, there are seven recommendations:

1. Increase land leases for City-owned lots to ten years 2. Leverage funds to help flower farmers with start-up costs3. Provide ready-to-plant sites for qualified flower farmers4. Create a virtual one-stop-shop for farmers5. Support the creation of a flower aggregator 6. Expand Homegrown Baltimore to include local flower growing and buying7. Encourage existing training programs to adapt to include produc tion flower farming

Recommendations


Because land tenure is the main concern for flower farmers, the City should increase the land leases for city-owned lots to ten years. Most leases executed with farmers through the Homegrown Baltimore RFP process are for five years, with a renewal option of two additional years - for a total of seven years. Recently a new clause was added to an executed lease for five years with automatic 2 year renewal, but the initial terms are still limited to five years. The City of Baltimore has not executed ten year leases primarily due to leases longer than seven years being subjected to property taxes. The Baltimore City Council recently passed an Ur-ban Agriculture Tax Credit, which would reduce the property tax burden by 90% for urban farms that produce at least $5,000 of produce per year and remain in operation for at least five years. This tax credit could make longer leases a more feasible option.

1. Increase land leases for City-owned lots to ten years.

2. Leverage funds to help flower farmers with start-up costs. Baltimore City’s innovative partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Chesapeake Bay Trust for the Growing Green Competition in 2014 provided start-up capital to potential flower farmers. One of the winners is beginning a flower farm in 2015 on City-owned vacant land in East Baltimore. The City of Balti-more should consider sharing resources such as greenhouse space or organic waste materials, in addition to grants for start-up costs.

Photo: Andy Cook


3. Provide ready-to-plant sites for qualified flower farmers. Because of the start-up costs for potential farm-ers and unique challenges to urban production, vacant lots that are ready-to-plant will attract flower farmers. This would reduce costs, plan-ning, and preparation for planting for new farm-ers. A ready-to-plant site would include: known soil conditions through testing and access to compost for soil mitigation (as needed), func-tional water access, and community support for flower farming on the site.

4. Create a virtual one-stop-shop for farmers. Though Baltimore has created a uniquely sup-portive environment for urban producers, it can be a challenge for aspiring flower farmers to navigate the various resources available through City agencies and community organizations. Similar in concept to the One-Stop-Shop for permits through Baltimore Housing, this recom-mendation is for a virtual one-stop shop for ur-ban agriculture in Baltimore. The one-stop shop would be a website to serve as the front door to link resources for Baltimore farmers – available sites, training resources, and funding options. This site would be meticulously maintained, cu-rating the most useful and current information for farmers, linking together the various re-sources from city, state, and federal government, and community organizations.

Photo: Andy Cook


5. Support the creation of a flower aggregator. A flower aggregator manages the aggregation, distribution and marketing of local flowers. A flower aggregator connects farmers and buy-ers, allowing buyers to engage with one entity instead of several farmers, and allowing farm-ers to engage with one entity instead of several buyers. An aggregator makes it easier for new farmers and those operating on a smaller scale to have access to sales outlets by combining multiple smaller suppliers’ products into a larger offer and connecting to buyers that otherwise may not be interested in small amounts of prod-uct. Currently, Local Color Flowers, an exist-ing floral design studio exclusively using locally grown flowers, serves as a de facto aggregator for flower farmers and provides an existing, robust sales outlet, but as the supply grows a more formal aggregator will be needed.

6. Expand Homegrown Baltimore to include local flower production and buying.Because Homegrown Baltimore was born out of the City’s Food Policy Initiative, it is focused primarily on healthy food access for residents. One primary barrier is that flower production is not expressly included in the prequalification ap-plication for identifying farmers for the Home-grown Baltimore Land Leasing Initiative. Buying local flowers, like other local products, supports the local economy and raises tax revenues to support local government services.

7. Encourage existing train-ing programs to include production flower farming. Several resources already exist in the Baltimore region to train potential urban farmers. Pro-grams like these provide needed training for would-be farmers in growing know-how, finan-cial management, quality assurance, post-harvest handling, marketing and business planning, sea-son extension, pest management, soils, nutrients, cover crops, and high yield growing. These com-prehensive programs provide valuable skills to help farmers succeed. However, there’s a gap in existing resources – none of the programs cover urban flower farming for production specifically. Combining the flower growing know-how of the University of Maryland Extension Master Gardener training program curriculum with Fu-ture Harvest’s Beginning Farmer Training Pro-gram curriculum, and the urban farmer training component through Civic Works and the Farm Alliance of Baltimore, could fill this gap.


Although urban agriculture has been expand-ing in Baltimore, there are few urban farms that grow food on a commercial scale and that are profitable. Flower farming may follow a similar trend and provide supplemental income as the market grows, but may not reach a commercial scale.

The specialty cut-flower business may fit well into a small-scale and part-time farming opera-tion, since farmers can control startup costs by entering the business slowly through increasing investment and production as their businesses and markets grow. There’s a readily available market niche with the “buy local” and “farm to centerpiece” movements, awareness about where flowers are grown, and preferred con-sumer aesthetics. Because diversity is key to help manage risks on an urban farm, or any farm, perhaps flower growing can be added to exist-ing farms in Baltimore City to take advantage of these trends.

Baltimore is a leader and innovator in urban ag-riculture. The development of an urban flower farming industry will continue this upward trend and will fulfill multiple priorities – greening vacant lots, providing business and employment opportunities, furthering the buy local move-ment and supporting the local economy. With the guidance and support of the Baltimore Of-fice of Sustainability, the recommendations in this report can improve the viability of flower farming in the city and expand what urban agri-culture means in Baltimore.

Conclusion

Photo: Maya Kosok

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